society

Jean Jacques Rousseau once argued that even the best made constitutional arrangements cannot function if the people who get to power do not want them to work. At the time, he was reflecting on the government of Poland. Today he might look…

E se fosse il capitalismo a salvare la democrazia? Un capitalismo che muta ancora una volta, come è nella sua natura proteiforme. In fondo è stata la grande crisi scoppiata nel 2008 a innescare una reazione a catena che dall’economia s’è…

L’avanzata del populismo in Occidente, l’ascesa della Cina a Oriente e l’ubiqua diffusione dei social media inducono a ripensare i meccanismi di funzionamento – o malfunzionamento – della democrazia. La globalizzazione e la rivoluzione…

As Lord Salisbury said, in the late 1800s, “Our officials are walking in a dream, in superb unconsciousness, believing that what had been must be.” Officials today seem no less blind to the reality of constant change. Even as the world…

■ “HISTORY, n. An account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.” This is the definition given by Ambrose Bierce in The Devil’s Dictionary. It is a…